The 'Broom-Hilda' cartoon that flew by us

Many readers encountering today’s “Broom-Hilda” comic strip must have gasped.

One of the characters said, “It makes people mad when I talk at movie theaters … especially during action-adventure films … they can’t hear the gunshots.”

What might have caused a smile before the Aurora, Colo., mass slayings last week at a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” seemed inappropriate today.

How did this strip get in the newspaper?

We review all comics a week before we begin publishing them (and in the case of the preprinted Sunday funnies, two weeks earlier). During that review we inspect 164 strips in one sitting. If a strip doesn’t meet our standards of fairness and taste, we routinely ask for substitutes from the features syndicates that provide our comics. When news breaks that turns a harmless cartoon into one of bad taste, someone flags it in time.

But not this time. Today’s “Broom-Hilda” had passed from memory by the time the slayings occurred.

That’s not an excuse, it’s just the explanation. We hate when anything like this gets past us, so we’re kicking ourselves -- and trying to make sure it doesn’t recur.